The purpose of this study was to determine the motivations and perceived barriers of nontraditional undergraduate students in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) at Texas Tech University. The nontraditional students in this study perceived intrinsic motivation, task value, self-efficacy and internal locus of control as their largest motivations to continue their education. Furthermore, the findings of this study indicated intrinsic motivation served as the greatest motivational force. Conversely, the participants perceived extrinsic motivation and test anxiety as smaller sources of motivation in their educational pursuits. The nontraditional students in this study perceived institutional barriers (i.e., barriers pertaining to instruction and educational planning), to be the greatest barriers to continuing their education. More specifically, the participants perceived the lack of a nontraditional student office on campus, mentoring program and nontraditional student support group as the largest barriers to continuing their education. The implementation of a stronger support system for nontraditional students at the university level, could potentially mitigate the barriers faced by these students. With that in mind, future research should be conducted to examine the benefits of various nontraditional student resources. This information could aid CASNR in selecting programs to benefit their nontraditional students.